The Mandalorian Jedi
by Joseph Wolfegang
Summary: Rayna Katarn finds herself with a 4,000 year old sarcastic and wisecracking Jedi named Caydon Qel Droma, who was frozen in a cave on Hoth. Unfortunately for both of them, Caydon's reappearance sparks a Mandalorian Civil War.
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue**

Caydon Qel Droma felt the laser bolt tear through his left shoulder, searing and catalyzing flesh at the same time. _Idiot_, he thought to himself as he transferred his lightsaber from his wounded left hand to his right. _You really thought you could outrun him?_ The voice chided him as he turned around and with a crackle, the lightsaber came to life in his right hand. He swung the saber up in a defensive position, his feet spread wide. _You're missing one hand...Oh shut up! Great, now I'm having..._

Another laser bolt sizzled through the air toward Caydon, interrupting his thoughts, but was deflected away with a quick flick of the wrist. Inching closer, the bounty hunter leveled his rifle and opened fire. Caydon easily deflected the deadly barrage away with grace and quickness. Angry, the bounty hunter threw his expended rifle to the ground and pulled out a small cylinder.

"The Mandarian Jedi," he sneered. "You're not as tough as they said you would be."

"I'm sorry," Caydon responded. "Apparently someone shot my left hand and then my shoulder, so I am at a bit of a disadvantage, wouldn't you agree?."

"You're not much of a Jedi if you can't detect my presence," the bounty hunter retorted.

"Ah," Caydon held up his damaged left hand. "But you don't know that. Maybe I was thinking, I could fool this guy into thinking I'm not a great Jedi or I could be a terrible Jedi, but..that's your decision to make."

With a snapping hiss, the bounty hunter lightsaber flickered on. Bringing it up into an attack position, the bounty hunter carefully studied his opponent. Aftering sizing him up, he let his stance open a little bit.

"We'll see about that," he responded roughly, knowing that he had the advantage. How much damage could a one-arm Jedi do?

"Shall we?" Caydon gestured before him with his left hand as if asking the bounty hunter to a dance.

Swinging his lightsaber from his shoulder toward Caydon, the bounty hunter tumbled forward as Caydon side-stepped his attack and with a momentous round-house kick to the mouth, Caydon snapped the bounty hunter's jaw like a wet tree branch. Falling to the ground and clutching his mouth, Caydon stood over him with his lightsaber pointed toward his throat.

"Second time, same verse?" Caydon asked as he withdrew his sword from the bounty hunter's throat.

Drawing himself up and spitting out blood, the bounty hunter swiped and stabbed at Caydon but Caydon, almost lazily, blocked and dodged every attack even with his left hand and shoulder injured. By the time the bounty hunter had finished his exhausting attack on Caydon, he had broken not only his jaw, but his right arm below the elbow, two bones in his leg, and a few ribs.

"I would applaud your effort, Mr...?" Caydon touched the side of his helmet as if transmitting data. "Ah, Mr. Broshk but I seem to have lost any feeling in my left hand."

Growling and then wimpering from the pain of moving his mouth, Broshk slumped against the side of the the cave and slammed his unbroken arm against the wall as hard as he could, which unfortunately broke his arm. With a thundering collapse the ceiling caved in, crushing and freezing them within seconds. The last thought going through both of their minds was, 'Of all the places I had to die, why Hoth?'


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 1**

"I sense..."

"A disturbance in the force," Kyle Katarn interrupted as he walked toward the main audience chamber's platform at the far end of the room. "Yeah, yeah. So where is it this time? Ord Rhaa? Kiffix? Tatooine?"

"Hoth," Luke said slowly as he opened his eyes. "The disturbance is on Hoth."

"Oh no," Kyle put his hands up. "I'm not going to that frozen wasteland they call a planet."

"Actually," Luke smiled as he slowly got up to his feet. "I was thinking about one of the recruits. Do you have anyone in mind?"

"Anyone! As long as I don't have to go with!" Kyle threw his hands up in the air. "Take Rayna, she's new and she could use some time away from Yavin..."

"Your cousin?" Luke's right eyebrow shot up. "She isn't even a Jedi Apprentice yet. No one, if I remember correctly, will take her on as an apprentice. Not even you."

"Okay," Kyle sighed. "She's difficult."

"Difficult wouldn't be the word I would use," Streen entered into the room. "She's a bit like you, Katarn. A little wild and doesn't know where to be."

"Perfect," Kyle said happily. "Perfect candidate to go to Hoth."

"Hoth?" Streen turned to Luke. "What is on Hoth?"

"I sensed..."

"A disturbance in the force," Kyle cut him off. "When doesn't he sense a disturbance in the force?"

"This one...was different. Ancient almost," Luke stared out the window behind them as if getting wistful about ages gone by. "All right, we'll send Rayna."

"Do you think that's wise?" Streen interjected as Kyle nodded and walked out of the room.

"Rayna has shown she is not only capable of taking care of herself in tight situations but she is more of a loner type," Luke sighed. "It is not wise but I see no other choice. Rayna needs a mission and she needs a teacher, Streen."

"I'll ask Tionne if she has found anyone yet to teach Rayna," Streen nodded, bowed, and slipped out of the room.

Rayna Katarn cussed loudly as the hydrospanner slipped from her fingers, rattled around the engine a little bit before dropping to the bottom of the oil pan. Blowing a tuff of brown hair from her eyes, she leaned herself over the side of the engine, and started reaching for the hydrospanner when she felt her cousin walking up.

"Can't you see I'm busy, Kyle?" She struggled to get her fingers around the spanner.

"I can see that," Kyle gently reached out with the force and pulled the hydrospanner into her hand. "And I can see that you still haven't made any progress on reaching out with the force."

"Says you," she responded hotly as she began repairing a few circuits with a splicer in her other hand.

"Luke wants you to go on a mission," Kyle leaned against the engine.

Blowing another tuff of hair from her eyes, Rayna pulled herself out of the engine and stared at Kyle. Huge globs of grease stained her shirt, her pants, and her face.

"What for?" She hopped down from the wing of her ship and moved over to a tool-box.

Following her over to her tool-box, Kyle sighed and launched into the little speech he was going to give her later but now seemed to be the best time to tell her.

"Listen, Rayna..."

"Rain," she corrected him as she started digging around for a tool.

"Rain, Luke is getting concerned about your powers. All the Jedi Masters are getting concerned. If you don't start showing any skills soon, you might find yourself out of the Academy. We know you have some skills, so why don't you use them?"

"When did you become a father?" Rain pulled out a couple new tools as she tossed the hydrospanner and the splicer back into the box.

"When I began mentoring students," he watched her as she hopped back on the wing and began working on the engine again. "Listen, I'll be in my room. If you want the mission, tell me, if not, I'll go tell Luke to find someone."

"I'll take it," she huffed as she stuck her head out of the engine. "As long as you leave me alone."

"Deal," Kyle turned on his boot and walked away.

Sighing as she found herself waist deep in her engine compartment, she wondered if she did indeed have any force abilities or was it wrong on their part? Did she block her force skills? Was it because she was frustrated with life? Why didn't she have any force skills? She could feel but that was all she could do. Maybe she could end up like Tionne as a mechanic.

Tossing the tools on the ground, she looked over as her little droid, S2-Q5, or Squeeker as she effectionately called it powered up next to a power generator.

"Come on Squeeks, we got a mission," squeeking a reply, Squeeker rolled out of his little compartment next to the generator, towards her ship, the _Spitting Swallow_. "I'll be right back, I need to figure out where this mission is..."

Squeeking another reply, Rain dashed from the docking bay and into the main academy area.

"Your mission is relatively simple," Luke smiled. "We need you to go to Hoth and see what is causing this disturbance in the force. You can feel it right?"

"Yes," Rain nodded, even though she couldn't feel it as strong as Luke.

"Hmm," Luke stood up from his desk. "Rain..."

"Yes, Master Luke," Rain clasped her hands behind her back.

"I'm afraid to tell you this," Luke stepped out from behind his desk. "But if you don't succeed in this mission, we might have to re-examine your qualifications for this Academy."

"I understand," Rain bounced on her heels.

"Rain," Luke sat down on top of his desk. "I know you have it in you. You know you have it in you. I'm not giving this pep talk because it's the right thing to do, I'm giving you this pep talk because I don't want you going down the same path as your cousin. He started out late and he's been pushed to the brink of falling to the Dark Side many times before. If your abilities do show up late, we need to make sure you know how to control them."

"Yes, sir," Rain sighed. "May I speak frankly, sir."

"Certainly," Luke gestured.

"I don't fit in this Academy, sir," Rain unclapsed her hands and put them on her hips. "I don't fit in sir, because I don't like it here."

"I'm sorry," Luke said gently. "May I ask why?"

"I don't know," Rain shrugged. "I don't like being in...groups. In being partnered with someone I don't know anything about. And yes that includes my cousin. I didn't even know him until I got here."

"Rain..." Luke paused. "Rayna, you have the ability to become a great Jedi and we only wish to see you succeed in being such. But right now you need to open up and realize you can't do it alone."

"I will keep that in mind, Master Luke," Rain bowed. "But you must realize that not everyone is comfortable with the apprentice, master relationship."

"I will consider it," Luke stood up and held out his hand. Taking his hand, Rain clasped it tightly and gave a good shake.

"Thank you," Rain bowed her head again and walked out of the room.


End file.
